Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Pea Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the split peas in cold water for 12 hours, preferably overnight.
Wash, peel, and halve the onions and turnip.
Wash and scrape the carrot clean.
Cut off the ends of the celery root and wash it well.
Make the soup
In a saucepan, combine the soaked peas and 2 quarts of cold water and bring to a boil.
Once the water is boiling, add all the vegetables.
Add any bones if using, and season with salt and pepper.
Let it boil slowly for 2 hours, skimming occasionally.
Remove the bones from the saucepan.
Pour the soup through a colander into a basin, rubbing the contents through with a wooden spoon.
Serve
Serve the pea soup with powdered mint and toasted bread cut into dice.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Split peas
- Break down during long simmering to thicken the soup and give it body.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and savory aromatic depth as they cook into the broth.
- Turnip
- Contributes mild sweetness and subtle earthy flavor to the soup base.
- Carrot
- Adds natural sweetness and color while softening into the soup.
- Celery root
- Adds a savory, aromatic background flavor to the broth.
The step that matters
Letting it boil slowly for 2 hours. Split peas need a long, gentle simmer to fully soften and break down; a hard boil can scorch the bottom and cook unevenly, while too short a time leaves the soup grainy. Skimming removes foam that would cloud the flavor.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, turnip, carrot, celery, pepper):
- Lentilsfits better
- Beansfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, turnip, carrot, celery, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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